TY - JOUR

T1 - Single-molecule conductance oscillations in alkane rings

AU - Ismael, A.K.

AU - Lambert, C.J.

PY - 2019/6/14

Y1 - 2019/6/14

N2 - We investigate the single-molecule electrical conductance of alkane rings connected to gold electrodes and demonstrate that their logarithmic conductances are ocillatory functions of length. This contrasts with the logarithmic conductances of alkane chains, which decay linearly with length. This non-classical behaviour is attributed to conformational effects in the alkane rings, which tend to be more (less) planar when their branches contain even (odd) numbers of CH2 groups. Surprisingly the conductances of alkane rings with two parallel conductance paths are predicted to be lower then those of the corresponding linear chains with only one conductance path.

AB - We investigate the single-molecule electrical conductance of alkane rings connected to gold electrodes and demonstrate that their logarithmic conductances are ocillatory functions of length. This contrasts with the logarithmic conductances of alkane chains, which decay linearly with length. This non-classical behaviour is attributed to conformational effects in the alkane rings, which tend to be more (less) planar when their branches contain even (odd) numbers of CH2 groups. Surprisingly the conductances of alkane rings with two parallel conductance paths are predicted to be lower then those of the corresponding linear chains with only one conductance path.

KW - Molecules

KW - Alkane chains

KW - Conformational effect

KW - Electrical conductance

KW - Gold electrodes

KW - Linear chain

KW - Parallel conductance

KW - Single molecule

KW - Single molecule conductance

KW - Paraffins

U2 - 10.1039/c8tc05565c

DO - 10.1039/c8tc05565c

M3 - Journal article

VL - 7

SP - 6578

EP - 6581

JO - Journal of Materials Chemistry C

JF - Journal of Materials Chemistry C

SN - 2050-7534

IS - 22

ER -